Professor in the Program in American Culture, Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, Department of History, and Native American Studies Program at the University of Michigan. She is author of the prize-winning book, Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom (2005) and essays on Cherokee women's history and Afro-Native historical intersections. Her most recent book, The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2010. Miles was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2011 for her work in public history.

Abstract

This article traces the restoration history of the Chief Vann House State Historic Site, a former Cherokee plantation owned and operated by the state of Georgia. The article explores the make-up of the restoration community in the 1950s and identifies aspects of convergence and divergence among this white, elite group in terms of both their visions for the site and their notions of how best to represent Indians. It argues that restorers used the restoration process as a route for personal and community identity enhancement, identifying with the storied Cherokee Indians and claiming “Indian” characteristics and the historical experience of Indian removal for themselves.

Professor in the Program in American Culture, Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, Department of History, and Native American Studies Program at the University of Michigan. She is author of the prize-winning book, Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom (2005) and essays on Cherokee women's history and Afro-Native historical intersections. Her most recent book, The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2010. Miles was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2011 for her work in public history.

Professor in the Program in American Culture, Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, Department of History, and Native American Studies Program at the University of Michigan. She is author of the prize-winning book, Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom (2005) and essays on Cherokee women's history and Afro-Native historical intersections. Her most recent book, The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2010. Miles was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2011 for her work in public history.